About This Event

Discover your Divine birthright through Bhagavad Gita study. In the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna (the Divine) is teaching and caring for his devotee Arjuna and giving him darshan (personal appearance). He removes all veils of delusion by explaining different paths of God realization. The love from God and reassurance of the Divine will help you to stop your anxious mind and discover a place of rest in your center as you read through the verses. During the retreat you will enjoy the beauty and serenity at Ananda Center at Laurelwood and get much deserved time for your body and mind to relax.

Retreat weekend* includes:

Study Sanskrit slokas (verses) from the Bhagavad Gita and Paramahansa Yogananda’s translation of those slokas into English from Swami Kriyananda’s book, “The Bhagavad Gita According to Paramahansa Yogananda”.

Practice Ananda Yoga to fill your body and mind with concentration.

Learn meditation techniques that help you to study and understand your reality.

Study the Bhagavad Gita as a method of Self Realization in which the Krishna manifests his Divine appearance to remove the doubts of his devotee.

Practice the Energization Exercises: a gift from Paramahansa Yogananda to draw energy from nature.

Chant to invoke devotion in your heart.

Use your personal retreat time to assimilate the teachings of Bhagavad Gita and gain strength to minimize the stress from everyday life.

Experience an intentional spiritual community and meet friends who have spent some time in self-introspection.

Enjoy “simple living and high thinking”

*To register for the Saturday only portion of the program, please click here.

Start or Enhance your Yoga and Meditation practice

Ananda Yoga is designed to explore the full potential of your body and mind to peace. It is a gentle practice and uses superconscious affirmations combined with yoga asanas (postures). The meditation techniques will help you to center yourself with every breath. It will be an experience that you will cherish in your heart.

Personal Instruction, Guidance and Community

Experience in-depth instruction in meditation, and guided yoga postures. Morning and afternoon yoga and meditation are offered daily in addition to sessions of instruction and discussion. Explore spiritual principles that can help you improve your quality of life. Enjoy a tour of Ananda Laurelwood, sing and play along with joyful devotional chanting, and get to know residents and the uplifting music and stories of Ananda.

Our teachers have devoted their lives to life-transforming meditation and yogic principles and will guide you from their own love of the practice and of people.

Schedule

Friday :

4:00 – 6:00 Room Check-In, Harmony Hall Foyer

4:45 – 6:00 Energization, yoga and short meditation

6:00 – 7:00 Dinner

7:30 – 9:00 Introductions/Sharing, The Gita Book.

Saturday:

6:30 – 8:00 Energization, yoga, and meditation

8:00 – 8:30 Breakfast in Silence

10:00 –12:15 Gita study

12:15 – 12:45 Meditation with community

12:45- 1:30 Lunch

2:00- 4:00 Gita study from Nayaswami Asha and Swami Kriyananda

4:45 – 6:00 Energization, yoga, and short meditation

6:00 – 7:00 Dinner

7:30 – 9:00 Evening Program

Sunday:

6:30 – 8:00 Energization, yoga, and meditation

8:00 – 9:00 Breakfast

9:00 –10:00 Personal Retreat time

10:00 –12:15 Wrap-up: Bringing Bhagavad Gita to your daily life.

12:15–12:40 Meditation

12:45-1:30 Lunch

The Center at Ananda Laurelwood is an ideal environment to quickly “unplug” from life’s daily stresses and learn lifelong techniques for an improved quality of life. The retreat center has great energy, beautiful surroundings, and warm, open people. The food was excellent and the lodging comfortable.

Schedule

Venue Highlights

The Center at Ananda Laurelwood is located 45 minutes west of downtown Portland in Oregon, surrounded by farmland, forest, and wetlands, with vistas of gently rolling hills stretching west to the coastal range. Quiet, serene, and inspiring, the landscape itself rejuvenates the soul.

The campus was originally designed and built as a residential high-school for the Seventh Day Adventist community. Retreat buildings are updated and comfortable, while retaining the charm and nostalgia of mid-century architecture.

Classrooms are sunny and bright, with plenty of room to stretch out and immerse yourself in a workshop, discussion group, or movement class.

Afternoon yoga classes are offered almost daily, year round.

Group meditations are held each morning and mid-day. Meditation instruction can be arranged.

Accommodations

Most of the accommodations at the Center at Ananda Laurelwood are dorm-style bedrooms with shared bathrooms down the hall. Most rooms have a sink in the corner. All rooms have ample closets and are quite spacious, light, and airy with good-sized windows looking out either across Laurelwood valley or onto the hillside above the retreat center.

You can choose your sleeping preference: twin, double, or queen bed. A small number of rooms have an en suite bathroom. A 2-bedroom apartment with kitchen and bath is also available.

Amenities

Free Wifi

Towels

Free Parking

Kitchen

Coffee/Tea

Cafe

Yoga Studio

Menu Types

Vegan

Vegetarian

Organic

Gluten Free

Dairy Free

Nut Free

Menu/Cuisine

All meals are vegetarian, with vegan and gluten-free options available. Grace Kitchen tries to accommodate special dietary needs.

Directions

From Portland airport (PDX), take the MAX light rail to the Beaverton Transit Station. Uber or Lyft are available for the picturesque, 30-minute drive to the Center at Ananda Laurelwood.

For GPS directions, enter Academy Way, Gaston OR.

About the
Venue and Teachers

What is Ananda?Ananda is a global movement based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda, who showed how everyone can realize God in their daily lives as a tangible, loving reality. Ananda was founded in 1968 by Yogananda’s direct disciple, Swami Kriyananda (J. Donald Walters).People from all faiths, traditions, and backgrounds are welcome at Ananda. We invite you to join us at our temples, yoga retreats, meditation groups, and communities to experience the joy of your own being. Meet the challenges and victories of your own spiritual journey, in the company of friends who support your inner growth and higher aspirations.Expand your sense of harmony and gain an increased sense of God’s loving presence in your life through ancient and effective techniques including Ananda Yoga and Kriya Yoga.

Pooja Copley grew up in Kolkata, India. She completed her Bachelors Degree in Physics and Masters in Management from University of Kolkata, India. She felt insecure and disappointed by the temporary nature of career, relationships, and human feelings. She started an active meditation practice in 2005 and went to Sarada Mission in India (part of the Ramakrishna Mission ashrams). She came to America with her twin sons, nine years old at the time, to work as a software engineer. She found Ananda and began practicing meditation on a daily basis. She is a founding member of The Center at Ananda Laurelwood and moved to this ashram in May 2011. Pooja currently works as a software engineer and says her only goal in life is to become a simple, humble devotee. The Bhagavad Gita has been a part of her life since childhood, when her Grandfather would chant the slokas with her as a small child.

Peter Copley is a Certified Ananda Meditation and Yoga Teacher. He went to Edger Cayce’s ashram as a teenager and ever since was interested in meditation. He studied for his Masters of Divinity in METHESCO and served as an assistant minister at First United Methodist Church in Lancaster, Ohio. He has been studying yoga philosophy with a personal practice of meditation since childhood. He has worked in sales, construction, and transportation. After several years as the Project Manager at Ananda Laurelwood, he took a position managing school bus transportation for a local school district. He practices remaining centered through every day at work. He is a talented singer and uses music in his devotional practice. His quest is to find God.

Bhagavad Gita Study and Meditation Retreat: June 2019

Thank you!

Why Retreat?

We asked people why they go on retreat, here's what they said:

This sounds like a dream! I am an education student and I have spent way too much time working all summer to pay for school. My boyfriend of 5 years is a government firefighter and has been away working most of the summer. His 30th Birthday and our 6th anniversary is coming up this winter, we would love to celebrate with a yoga retreat! We both love yoga but have barley had time to practice in the past few months. Keeping our fingers crossed!
Jaimee and Dan

Retreat Guru's Vision

We believe human beings are innately wise, strong and kind. This wisdom, although not always experienced, is always present. Going on retreat is a beautiful way to reconnect to our basic sanity and health. Our aspiration at Retreat Guru is to inspire people to experience authentic retreats and reconnect with their innate wisdom, strength and kindness.